Love in the Madness
by virgo-24
Summary: Hello everyone! Virgo-24 here. So... for a long time I've liked the idea of SzayelxOrihime. BUT... oddly enough there are not alot of stories about them here. So! This it my contribution if you well. Full summary inside... go on... look! Ya know ya want to! Hope you all like! Peace Out! Virgo-24
1. Chapter 1

**Love in the ****Madness**

**Sup People… Virgo-24 here.**

**So… to start off I'd like to thank all the people who have been reading and reviewing my other story; it makes me happy to know that people at actually looking at it. **

**Second thing… Now that I have my new computer (after my old one fried :/) I was able to save some things from the hard drive. Unfortunately they have nothing to do with the story I've been working on. Fortunately all the documents that I saved were start chapters to a bunch of over stories that I'm starting to write and post. So… I'm gonna be posting them all in the next week or so. If you havn't read anything I've wrote before I can only warn you that I'm a slow typer so it may take a while for updates.**

**Third Thing…** **WARNING: This story does contain possible Spoilers that relate to the Hell Chapter Movie!**

**So… if you have no clue what that is than you may not understand some of the things that will happen in the story.**

**Anyways… as you can tell this story is called 'Love in the Madness'. And it involves… well, read the summary.**

**Summary: ****After Ulquiorra Schiffer (Cifer, however you like it spelled) successfully kidnaps Orihime Inoue his task is complete. However; Aizen still feels as though she will need to be watched over. So, he immediately tries to decide which Espada will be given the task. Unfortunately Ulquiorra had no intention of dealing with the woman further and none of the other Espada seem to be the best of choices if he wants her to remain alive. Instead he decides that he will pair an Espada with a lower level Arrancar and they will both be tasked with making sure the orange haired female stays alive as long as she is needed. The lower level Arrancar is Arrancar number 19 (an OC that I'll tell you about in a second) and the Espada is none other than… Szayel Aporro Grantz. At first Szayel it not thrilled with his new duty but he soon realizes the rare scientific opportunity that has been handed to him all wrapped up with a silver bow. Szayel quickly begins his observations and trying to decode the riddle that is Orihime Inoue. But somewhere along the way his simple desire for scientific research becomes something more. Something that he has no name for; something that frightens him. With the help of the 19****th**** Arrancar Szayel will have to figure out what he feels for the orange haired woman and decide what to do when the time comes for the finally battle when her life is in danger.**

…**Yeah, that **

**So… that's the plan for now. Oh, my OC… got to tell you about him.**

**My OC**

**Name: His real name is actually a bad secret of his; because of his past (which will be reviled later on in the story) he doesn't give his real name to anyone (not even Aizen knows it). Because of this most people refer to him as 'Diecinueve' since he is the 19th Arrancar. Sometimes he is referred to simply by the title 'The Hellion' or 'Akutare' in Japanese and 'El Demonio' in Spanish. **

**Race-Arrancar and Sinner**

**Stated Class: Numeros/Fracción **

**True Class: Vasto Lorde/ Espada strength or higher**

**Fake Rank: 19**

**Real Rank: Infinite **

**Gender: Male (in case you weren't listening)**

**Tattoo Location: Right Cheek (only arrancar with his rank tattoo on his face)**

**Hollow Hole Location: Left side of his body just under his rib-cage (the hole is on a downward slanted angle so the exit is on his lower right side above his waist.) **

**Height: 6'3**

**Weight: 190 Pounds**

**Age: Real age unknown looks to be between 20 and 25 years old**

**Date of Birth: September 20****th**

**Death Aspect: Yet to be reviled (Although the Espada are the only Arrancar who have aspects of death that we know that doesn't mean that others don't have one. But for now it's a secret… /evil laughter/). **

**Backstory: **

**Most of his backstory will be reviled in the story but there are something's that you should know. Unlike most Arrancar my OC didn't simple die and become a Hollow. Not only did he sin as a Hollow but in life he actually killed two people that were connected to his younger brother's death. The remaining offenders killed him as punishment and he eventually became a hollow and kills the ones that killed him. He was later killed by a Soul Reaper and because of his sins as a human he has sent to hell. In hell his spiritual pressure changes and he slowly becomes a resident of hell, better known as a Sinner. He is so powerful that many other Sinners pledge their immortal existence to him and he becomes something of a king. He was so powerful that he was actually able to controls several of the Kushanāda (Guardians of Hell). This caused the balance of power in Hell to fail and in order to make sure that Hell wasn't destroyed the remaining Kushanāda captured him and forced him out of Hell. He wasn't able to return to the Human World so instead he ended up in Hueco Mundo. His body adapted to eating Hollows and his spiritual energy morphs again into an energy that is both Hollow-like and Sinner-like. Because of how powerful he is most Hollows avoid him; he achieves Vasto Lordes level and when Aizen comes to Hueco Mundo he is immediately placed into the ranks of the Arrancar. He was so powerful that he was stronger than even the Espada so Aizen secretly gave him the rank of Infintio (Infinite) Espada. He didn't what others to know about his rank because he wanted to avoid too much attention so he was given the cover rank of the 11th Arrancar. Over time his laid back demeanor caused him to slip back to number 19 but he is still just as powerful. The symbol of his secret ranking is a gothic style infinity symbol that is in the same place as his current rank number. His 19th ranking tattoo is black like all other Arrancar numbers but his hidden ranking tattoo is red. **

**(This is an infinity symbol, just in case you've never seen it before.)**

**(Totally crazy backstory… hate it if you want but it's here. In a way it doesn't seem total crazy since Aizen made Yammy the Zero Espada.)**

**Appearance: **

**His Arrancar uniform from the waist down is like the standard uniform .The normal black tabi socks and white waraji shoes adorn his feet. His white hakama pants are normal as well as the black obi sash around his waist. The top half of his attire includes a white jacket similar to Grimmjow's but with longer sleeves that came down to his wrists. The jacket has a hood that hangs down in the back so when the jacket is closed it looks like a hoody. He never wears it closed though so that the plain black shirt underneath can be seen. The jacket it completely white aside from the two black lines on both side of the open flaps and two stripes on both jacket sleeves that wrap around the middle of his forearm. He also wears black gloves with the fingers cut out of them. The black t-shirt fits his body snuggly; he has an average build with muscular arms and slightly broad shoulders. He has a full face with high cheek bones and his eyes are a cobalt blue color. His left eye has a slight cloudy aspect to it, although the difference in color can only be seen if you were really looking for it. His hair it a bright bleach blond that it spiked up and sticks out all over the place (Think of Spider One from Powerman 5000 or Guy Fieri :p). A small section of his hair hangs down at the back of his neck and he uses a red hair tie to hold it in a low ponytail that is about four inches long. His mask fragment is positioned on the right side of his head over his ear. It takes the shape of a pointed foxlike ear and extends down over the back part of his jawline. Like most of the Arrancar he has a colored marking on his face that is simply an inch wide orange rectangle that runs straight down from his hairline above his left eye to the top of his cheek bone. The line covers his whole eyelid but is broken up by his eye and eye-brow. **

**Attitude/Behavior:**

**In terms of an Arrancar he is rather calm and laid back (sort of like Starrk but not as outright lazy). He usually keeps to himself but is actually very social when he is around certain people. Unlike most Arrancar he is not arrogant or boastful about his powers and not many people have ever even seen his sword release since he prefers to watch the battles instead of getting involved with has his own set of morals that he follows religiously; he will never fight someone who is already injured or without a weapon and he will only fight someone if they attack him first. He will not kill an opponent unless it is them. However when he does fight he does it well often defeating his opponent with little to no effort. He absolutely necessary thus allowing most of the people he has battled to fight another day. His whole reason for fighting at all is based upon his belief that although he doesn't necessarily like to fight he does it because that is what he is good at. He is compassionate like Neliel and always prays for the souls of his comrades and the people he is forced to kill. When an Arrancar falls he states their name, class, and number before asking the gods that the person's soul has save passage to where it is going. Even if the person is an enemy he will do the same and thank them for allowing him to fulfill his purpose in fighting. He doesn't enjoy battle like Nnoitra or Kenpachi rather he sees it as something that should be avoided as much as possible. On the battle field he is very serious, never underestimating his opponents or making a move without thinking it through. Off the field though he is totally care-free so much so that he is considered by many to be 'too happy to be a heartless Arrancar'. This is further expressed in how he treats other's; he is very well liked amongst the lower ranked Arrancar because unlike most higher ranked Arrancar he is not cruel or hateful to those below him and treats them as equals. He doesn't like arrogant people or people that are cruel without real reason which often puts him at odds with people ranked higher than him (mainly Nnoitra and Yammy). He has been in the ranks of the Arrancar since Neliel was the third Espada and they were very close and considered the other a comrade and friend (another reason for his dislike of Nnoitra). He and Grimmjow have a mutual respect for one another and often spare together. Grimmjow's fraccion see him as an equal as well and he is closest to D-Roy and Llforte Grantz. He also has a bit of a foul mouth; bested only by Grimmjow and Nnoitra. **

**He has a great distain for Aizen and will purposely go against certain orders and verbally insult the man in front of other's to get his point across. He hates Aizen because he believes the man has made this whole army to fulfill his goal and after that goal is reached Aizen will simply kill any of the remaining Arrancar (which is actually pretty true). Even though he is only ranked 19****th**** Aizen seems intent on keeping the blond haired Arrancar in his ranks because of his true rank as the infinite Arrancar so Aizen hasn't killed him yet for running his mouth. He is one of the few Arrancar that achieved a higher class without Aizen's use of the Hōgyoku and has no ties to the tyrant. Many people who have heard him speak out of turn to Aizen believe that he most have a death wish and are just waiting for Aizen to snap and kill him; it still hasn't happened. Because of his past and advanced abilities Aizen believes that he needs the blond Arrancar on his side in the Winter War so he puts up with the disrespect. In the end he will only do what he believes is right even if it totally crazy. **

**Zanpakuto: **

**Name- Like all Arrancar his Zanpakuto's name is of Spanish origin. The blades name is 'Lamentos Pecador' which translates to 'Wailing Sinner' in English or 'Tsumibito o Nageki' in Japanese. **

**Sword Appearance****- The blade takes the form of a broad sword similar to the ones used in the middle ages with a silver X shaped guard. The blade is bent near the end so that the last three inches of the blade sticks out vertically to the right from the rest of the sword. Both sides of the blade have a cutting edge so that he can swing the blade both ways and still cut something. Because of the bent tip he can only swing the sword to the side to stab someone rather than stabbing them straight through. The handle is wrapped in orange colored cord warp and the scabbard (sheath) is black. Because of the blade tip the sheath is open at the bottom allowing the last two inches of the blade to be seen. Like most Arrancar he carries the blade at his waist strapped under his obi sash. Until most Arrancar the blade rests behind his back as opposed to at his side. He is right handed so the handle sticks out behind him on the right side and the blade it slanted to the left. Whenever he sits down he has to reposition the blade at his side or take it off altogether. The pommel is circular and is engraved with a star inside of a circle. **

**(Like this… not a pentagram you crazy people) **

**Abilites/Powers:**

**The swords release command is 'Cursed Ending of the Damned: Wailing Sinner' translated in spanish as 'Maldito Final de los Condenados:** **Lamentos Pecador'. **

**Resurrección Form-**** Because of his true rank of Inifinto he is unable to release his sword under the canopy of Las Noches just like Espada's 1-4. Because of his Hollow and Sinner spiritual pressure his release form is a bit different from a normal Arrancar. In his release form he looks similar to the Vasto Lordes form that Ichigo has. His whole body becomes covered in the white hollow armor made of the same material as his mask fragment. His head is complelty covered with a mask that has pointed extentions on the side that represent the foxlike ears of his original mask fragment. The mask also has two large horns that jet out from the front of his head above his eyes. The horns curve out slightly to resemble goat horns; the mouth of the mask strecthes all the way across his face and is formed from a top and botom row of sharp interlocking teeth. Two of the top teeth are elongated and reach all the way down to the bottom of his chin to make it look like the mask has fangs. The armor is covered in numorous black and orange markings that are symmetrical on both sides of his body. Two large spikes stick out from his shoulders and curve outwards; he also has backwards facing spikes at his elbows and six large spikes that jet out from his back. Two from the top of his shoulder blades, two from the bottom of his shoulder blades, and two from his lower back. The nails on his hands and feet become claws and change to black in color. He also has a tail that forms at the base of his spine and is formed from many small fragments of hollow armor that resemble a fox tail. Because of his Sinner past in this form his Sinner chains can be seen; they form a set of leg irons with large cuffs that have chains attached to them. The chains have been broken in the middle so that his legs are not restricted. The cuff on his left ankle has five individual chain links while the one on his right has four. He also has chians on his wrists that are attached with cuffs like the ones on his ankles. The chains on his wrist are attached to the back of an iron clamp on his neck. They hang down from an iron ring at the back of the neck clamp in two separate strands that fall down against his back and continue down to attach to the cuffs at his wrists. The neck clamp also was a chain with ten larger links that falls down the center of his cheat and ends at his waist. Because he was the most powerful Sinner in hell he has the most chains that bind him although most of them are unseen. His pupils are still blue but the white's of his eyes are now pitch black. In this form his rank of infinte Espada is still shown on the right cheek of his mask but it has changed slightly.**

**(Like this…) **

**Different weapons of his release form are his advanced strength as well as his Cero, Gran Rey Cero and Cero Oscuras. His normal Cero's power is increased greatly in this form; this cero is red like must Arancar Cero's and is formed in his hand. His Gran Rey Cero is orange like his spiritual pressure and is formed in the space between his horns. Cero Oscuras is shoot from his mouth and is a black outlined with orange. (Although Ulquiorra is the only one who ever used the technique in the anime he did say that it was something that all Espada could do.) Like all Arrancar his strength is greatly increased in this form and even more so with him because of how powerful he is to start with.**

**The main weapon of his release form is still his sword which changes slightly from it's original form. It becomes wider and instead of the blade being bent to the right at the top it had two points at the end that form a T shape. The blade extends futher into a straight tip making the blade look like it has a cross as the top. **

**Other Abilities: **

**He hardly ever releases his sword because of how dangerous it is and he actually prefers the powers that it has normally. His Zanpaukto has the abilty to control weather and water to a certain extent. He can't create water like Tier Harribel rather his spiritual energy has an effect on the environment. Durning a high level battle his spiritual pressure can cause heavy rainstorms, even in Hueco Mundo where it does not rain. His must effective technique envovles him stabbing his enemies then using his spiritual energy to remove the water from their body through the blade basiclly dehydrating them to the point they can no longer move or fight. Again he hardly uses the sword for anything over than melee combat. He doesn't use his sword release because of the fact that his spiritual pressure is half Hollow and half Sinner and to release his sword affects his thinking. He often says that his sword is a lot more aggressive and likes to fight more than he does and when he releases his sword that aggression trasmits onto him. **

**He is a master of Sonido and is also one of the fastest Sonido users. This makes up for his lack of defensive abilities. Unlike more Arrancar who have the protection of their hierro because he is half Sinner he is unable to use his spiritual energy to create the hierro technique. This makes him extremly vulnerable to even lower level attacks by an enemy. **

**Although he is unable to use hierro like other Espada he can use his spiritual power to increase his stength or regeneration abilites. And were as the other Espada can only do one or the other he has the ability to change it for different situations. If he needs more power to defeat an enemy he will increae his power and if he needs to heal himself he uses the energy for regeneration. He mainly uses his spiriutal energy to increase his power and only uses it to heal himself if he is greatly injured. He can also use high-speed regeneration like Ulquiorra and because he is half Sinner (Sinner's can regenerate in hell even if their whole body is destoryed) he is able to regenerate any body part or organ. (He does not know if his brain is the same way because his head has never been blow to chuncks).**

**He also has the power of Pesquisa (Probe Circuit) like all other Arrancar do. This allows him to gauge the strength of his enemy; he is very skilled with this technique and is able to judge the strength of his opponent in seconds. He can also use Garganta to travel between the human world and Hueco Mundo but oddly enough he usually lets other people open one for him because the ones he opens never seem to place him in the exact place he wants to go (he sometimes ends up several miles from where he wants to be).**

**Affiliation(s):**

**Although his is in Aizen's army he does not trust the man and often ignores his orders. But like when he was in Hell he has his own group of followers. Many of the Hollows in the Menos Forest know him because he spends a great deal of time there and a vast amount of them acutally side with him. Although Aizen believes that most of them are loyal to him he doesn't know that his most powerful Arrancar is actually prepared for any tricks that Aizen might pull. If it comes down to it a plan is in place for the Hollows in the Menos Forest to attack Las Noches under the command of the Infinite Arrancar and hopfully kill Aizen before he carries out his plans. **

**Done… damn, sa lot of stuff. Sorry about that; but when you have an OC you go ahead and tell everything about them so there are no qestions later on ****. Besides… I'm actually starting the story with him first so ya got to know about him. **

**Anyways… Now it's time for the real good stuff… the first chapter; hehe…**

**Warning! This story is rated M… M for blood, cursing, violence, and other adult themes (that means lemons my children…). If you ain't an adult or you don't like that sort of stuff you turn around right now… thank u**

"…"**-Talking '…'-Thinking (…)- Anything else I can think of.**

**Disclaimer:  Bleach does not belong to me (sadly of course) I own none of the characters or places... aside from my OC of course.**

**Chapter 1 starts…NOW!**

**Chapter One: The Madness meets The Hellion**

"_But I don't want to go among mad people." Alice remarked._

"_Oh, you can't help that…" said the Cat. "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."_

"_How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice._

"_You must be…" said the Cat. "or you wouldn't have come here."_

_**-Lewis Carroll**_

_**from Alices Adverntures in Wonderland**_

**About 3 a.m…judging by the position of the moon in the dark sky. Although in truth it was close to impossible to tell what time it was in a place that had no sunlight. The inverted cresant moon hung high in the sky; casting it's silver glow across the vast, endless desert of Hueco Mundo. The glow bathed the empty world almost perfectly, aside from the dark shadows created by the large sturcture of Las Noches and the occasional withered tree-like stuctures sticking out of the desert sands. The castle that was home to the Arrancar and three traitorous Shinigami captians was as silent as the grave at this time. Even though most of them couldn't tell what time it was their internal clocks still told them it was time for sleep. Most of them anyways…**

**One of the few souls that was still awake to the world was the one who had judged it to be three in the morning. But even with this knowledge he could not sleep. He wasn't tired or if he was he did a good job of fighting it. This person was someone who normally had no importance in anything that Aizen was planning; he wasn't ranked high enough for that. At least it seemed that way… either way he didn't much care. What Aizen wanted was very different than what he was concerned about. But at the moment the bleach blond haired man was concerned about nothing. He hadn't even moved from his place on his bed for the past hour or so.**

**The man gave a silent chuckle, a bed… haha. A strange thing to find humor in for certain but in Las Noches a bed was a special thing. Normally only the Espada were given the luxury of a bed; anyone below that level was stuck with a couch. A couch that could stand to be a bet more comfortable. But here he was… the 19****th**** Arrancar; with a bed that could possibly make even some of the Espada envious. A king sized thing with bloodly red satin sheets and feather pillows with soft black cases. He smiled sligtly; remembering the time that the Primera Espada had asked to sleep there because the bed looked so comforable. The Arrancar had given the Espada a funny look at such a request but the Primera had been dragged off by the small blond girl that was always with him. What was her name? Lilynette. Yes, Lilynette Gingerbuck. She always gave the Primera Espada a hard time; even though both of them were basiclly two parts of the same being.**

**The blond haired Arrancar smiled again; he did like his room a lot so he could see how someone else could be jealous; exspecially the Arrancar's that were close in rank to himself. When D-Roy and Llforte first saw his room they looked like they had been smacked over the head with a 2x4… their faces had been priceless. They couldn't understand how someone ranked lower than then could have such a cool room. Aside from the bed that he was currently resting on his room had a large writing desk in far left corner, a small night stand on the left side of the bed, a large dresser for his uniforms and a door in the far right corner that opened into a closet full of clothes that looked like things worn by humans. (He was one of the few Arrancar with ulimited access to the Human World so he made sure to have plenty of clothes to wear so that he didn't stick out too much.) The door to the hallway was in the corner of his room to the left of him, since his bed was against the opposite wall. A large window was on the wall his bed was against and it reached all the way from the ceiling to just above the floor. It was only about two feet wide but you could probably slip through it and jump down to the desert below (although this wouldn't be the wisest of moves since you would never survive the fall if you were not a spiritual being. The only other form of furniture in the room was a white couch against the opposite wall from his bed and a bookcase on the right side of the writing desk which was direactly in front of his bed on the other side. The bookcase was full of books, all heavy and old; actually… he had no clue where most of them had even come from. All the furniture was either made of a dark red wood or a light maple wood… a big contrast that seemed to work rather well together. But the thing that set his room apart from all the other rooms in Las Noches was the walls. Or rather… their color. Where all the walls in Las Noches were bone white, his room was painted pitch black. As black as the skies of Hueco Mundo itself. **

**His colbat blue eyes lazily roamed around his room, the white light of the eternal moon seeping through the large window and bouncing off the dark walls of his domain. He **_**hated **_**white… not because it was plain or boring or even because it made your eyes hurt to look at it for too long. No… he hated white because white was pure… white was clean and white was good. Arrancar were not good… they were not pure or clean. They were creatures of death and pain and suffering. Beings of sin… It was so odd that the Soul Reapers should wear black and the Arrancar wear white; instead of the other way around. He even made sure that his outfit wasn't complelty white… the black t-shirt under his hooded uniform jacket and black fingerless gloves he wore broke up the white just enough. **

**He **_**despised **_**white…**

**A soft knock at the door broke him out of his thoughts; he turned his head to the right, looking at the white door in confusion. Who the fuck would be awake at this time of night? ( Besides himself of course…) Better question would be who the fuck was awake and knocking on his door at this time of night? Another knock… a bit louder than the last one. With a grunt the 19****th**** Arrancar crawled to his feet before walking over to the door and turning the knob to open it. The door swung open slowly revealing the person who was still awake at such an ungodly hour. A short female Arrancar with black hair and lightly tanned skin; her hollow mask covered the whole top of her head and come down to cover her left eye. Her right eye was still visable, her dark brown pupils were full and surpirse and the tiniest hint of fear. She had been surpirsed when the door opened so suddenly, and once she realized that the person she was looking for was standing in front of her she became a bit fearful. Even though he was only the 19****th**** Arrancar he could still kill her in half a second if he wanted to. She wished that Aizen-Sama could have waited until morning to speak with the blond haired man but he was insistant that she went to fetched him right this second. Hence the fact that her black hair was slightly messy from her interupted sleep. She propably looked horrid, but there was no way out of it... she had to do what Aizen comanded. The whole way here she had been silently praying that the Arrancar she was to inform that Aizen wanted to speak to him wouldn't be pissed at being woken up at three in the morning. **

**She had never meet the ****man before but she had heard a lot about him from many of the other low ranked Arrancar and Fracción. They all said that he was very nice and easy to get along with. Every time she had heard such things she had laughed out loud… an Arrancar 'nice' and 'easy to get along with'; good lord what were they thinking. An Arrancar being nice was about as believable as someone saying it was going to rain in Hueco Mundo. It was ridiculous but right about now she was really hoping that they were right about the male in front of her. She looked up at him, damn… he was freakin' tall. Or maybe she was just really short… she didn't know for sure but since she was only 4'3 she figured that it was her small stature that made him seem so much taller. He was staring at her… she couldn't tell what he was thinking or what the look meant but when she finally realize that she was basically staring at him she snapped her head to the floor. Shit… she was dead, she could see it now; he was going to charge a cero and blow her chest apart right then and there. She could feel the sweat on her brow and her legs were shaking slightly. She tried to steady her legs and stop her knees from knocking together but to no avail. The sound of someone clearing their throat almost made her jump out of her skin. She looked up again… the blond haired man had his arms crossed and was leaning against the door jamb; he didn't seem like he was going to hurt her but she was still afraid. Finally deciding that she wasn't going to speak first the male Arrancar made the choice to ask her what she wanted.**

"**Is there something that you wanted?" ****He asked slowly, his low voice echoing slightly in the empty hallway. No one else lived on this hallway besides himself; it was his own little part of the castle of Las Noches. **

"**Huh? O-oh… umm y-yes well…" she stammered, totally caught off guard by his voice.**

** The male sighed to himself mentally, she was terrified. He didn't know why but he guessed it was because she was afraid of what he would do to her. He wasn't going to hurt her; but she didn't know that. He smiled at her kindly; he wanted her to know that he wasn't a threat to her. Her eyes widened slightly, he was smiling at her. Not a scary, malicious smile but a soft, reassuring smile. It was really weird but she felt like she could trust him and that he wouldn't hurt her. With a little confidence in her system she spoke again.**

"**Aizen-Sama has a-asked that you come to the t-throne room and speak w-with him immediately." She said, still stuttering a bit but not as bad as before. **

"**Right now? It's like three in the morning…" ****He answered in confusion, what the hell could that stupid ass Aizen what at such an early hour?**

"**He has a-asked that you come as q-quickly as p-possible." She affirmed softly.**

"***Growl* Seriously… of all the bullshit."**** He snapped lightly, why that damned Soul Reaper couldn't wait for a more reasonable time to ask for his presence was beyond him. **

**The female Arrancar flinched slightly at the growl that escaped the man's lips; she figured he would take his anger out on her but he still made no move to strike at her. He just looked annoyed, his lip set in a firm line as he stared out into space. This guy was strange; she had already decided that in her mind. She was really glad that everything she had heard about the man was apparently true. It meant that she would hopefully live in see another day. But she hadn't gotten away with her life just yet.**

"**H-how tall are you?" She asked him suddenly, without even thinking.**

**He was quiet for a minute after hearing such on off-handed question but answered it anyways, "****6'3… why?"**

"**N-no reason… just w-wandering is all." She answered quickly.**

**Damn… he was a full two feet taller than her! Why did she ask such a stupid thing, she wanted to kick herself so badly for her stupidity but a deep chuckle grabbed her attention. He was chuckling!**

"**Ha-ha… just wandering? I see… you are a lot shorter than me after all."**** He said lightheartedly. **

"**Y-yeah… only 4'3 sir." She answered evenly.**

**The world was surly coming to an end; here she was having a totally carefree conversation with a higher ranking Arrancar. The world had to be going crazy; it was weird… but also nice in a way. Even with the lower ranked Arrancar conversations like this were few and far between. The world was a strange place… **

"**So… what could be so important for Aizen to call on me at this time of night?"**** The blond haired Arrancar asked lazily.**

"**Sir…?" The female Arrancar asked in a questioning tone, not sure what he meant.**

"**Well… of all the other people he has at his disposal he calls on me; in the middle of the night as well? What could he possibly need me for? Me, a mere Numeros when he could surly get at least one of his Espada's to do his bidding? Why is that do you think?" **

"**Oh… I'm sorry sir, b-but I don't know w-what he wants. I was o-only told to relay the message to you." She told him softly.**

"**I see..." **

** They spoke for a little while longer; he was really nice and even got her to laugh a few times. He had to be the strangest person she had ever met in her whole life. It was almost as though he didn't belong there, in the cool blankness of Hueco Mundo. He was too kind, too funny, and too… **_**alive**_** to be in such a place. He also did the strangest thing when they were talking to one another. She rarely looked at the person she was talking to; in Hueco Mundo that would get you killed in a heartbeat. But she looked at him when she spoke, just as he looked at her when he spoke. Unfortunately the difference in their heights made looking up at him rather painful; the muscles in her neck and shoulders were cramping from having to crane her head back to look at him. He realized that she was having a hard time and did the strangest thing. In the middle of their conversation he squatted down in front of her; so that they were almost eye-level with one another. Her eyes had widened a bit… he had done that for her; so that her neck wouldn't hurt. Why? He had simply smiled as though it was nothing at all and just kept right on talking as though nothing had happened. He most certainly did not belong in Hueco Mundo.**

"**Well… I suppose it's time to go see what Aizen wants before he gets ticked off for it taking so long."**** The blond man said from his squatting position. **

"**Yes… that would be wise." She answered, finally speaking without a stutter around him.**

**He smiled as he stood back up to his full height; she smiled as well... happy to have found someone in Las Noches that wasn't so terrible. A thought suddenly crossed her mind; she wasn't done just yet. Aizen-Sama had sent her to fetch two people. The first one had been informed but now she had to go talk to the other person. The thought of it made her blood run cold. The man who she had been talking to had surprised her with his kindness; but the next fellow had no kindness in him what so ever. Her smile turned to a frown in an instant; she had survived until now; but the second person she had to inform would almost definitely kill her. Hell, she may not even get all the way through his area of Las Noches without dying. She shivered slightly; the blond haired Arrancar saw it and instantly asked her what was wrong.**

"**Are you ok?" **

"**Huh… O-oh yes! I'm f-fine!" She nearly shouted.**

**She was lying,**** "Are you sure?"**

"**No…" She admits nervously.**

"**Well… what's sa problem?" **

"***Sigh…* Aizen-Sama also sent me to tell someone else that he wanted to speak with them. This person scares me… a lot." She told him… her head down in shame.**

"**Hmm… This 'someone else' got a name?"**

"**I-it's the eighth Espada… Szayel Aporro Granz."**

'**The eighth Espada? Why would Aizen want to talk to us both?' He wondered to himself.**

**He had never meet the eighth Espada but he had hear quite a bit about him (none of it all that good either).No wonder the small female in front of him was so frightened; he would have to fix that. From what he had heard; there was a good change that the eighth Espada wouldn't let her off so easily.**

"**You go on back to bed… I'll get him." **

"**W-what?!"**

"**You heard me…"**

"**B-but… Aizen-Sama told me to…" She began but stopped when the blond haired man leaned forward so that they were once again eye to eye.**

"**Fuck what Aizen says…" ****He told her.**

**Her eyes bugged out of her head; it was bad enough that he referred to the Ruler of Las Noches by only his surname but now he was openly going against what he had said. The blond haired Arrancar was a nice guy for sure; but what he was saying… it was treasonous; outright blasphemy. He had a death wish to say such things within the walls of Las Noches.**

"**He made you get up in the middle of the night just to fetch my sorry ass and some other crazy nutcase. He doesn't even seem to care about the fact that the eighth Espada is likely to kill you or worse, turn you into some unmentionably jacked up experiment. We both have to see Aizen so I'll go get him so that you don't have to take the risk of getting into any trouble."**

**She wanted to protest, really she did; **_**but**_**… he did have a few valid points. She had tried not to think about the fact that the eighth Espada could kill her or experiment on her (not that she was successful with that at all). She was also still very tired and wouldn't mind avoiding the long wall to the eighth Espada's domain which was clear on the other side of Las Noches. And it wouldn't really hurt since they both had to go see Aizen; and hell… the guy was offering (more like insisting) that she go back to sleep and let him deal with it.**

"**Alright… just be careful. I can't imagine what sort of traps are in the eighth Espada's wing." She warned him quietly.**

"**Hahaha… do not worry about me. I can get around a few traps easily." ****He says with a grin.**

**He turned and walked back into his room to grab his jacket which he had taken off earlier. It was resting at the foot of his bed; he walked over to the mattress and snatched the white uniform hoody up before putting it on. He walked back towards the door but not before grabbing the key to his room that was on his bedside table. He didn't want anyone in his room without him being there so he made sure the door came with a lock. He walked out into the hallway as he finished adjusting the hood and sleeves of his jacket before turning back to the room door, pulling it shut and locking it with the key. The key was attached to a piece of red rope so he let the key hang around his neck so that it would be out of the way. He smiled one last time at the black haired female who had waited from him to return. **

"**Go on, get to bed." ****He told her.**

"**Hai… thank-you sir." She said as she bowed slightly before turning to walk back to her own room. **

"**Hey…" ****He called to her causing her to stop and look at him.**

"**Don't call me sir… it makes me feel old." **

"**Oh… I'm sorry. But then… what am I to call you?" She asked innocently. **

"**What's your name?"**

"**Tsuyoi…"**

"**Well Tsuyoi… you can call me Akutare." ****He told her, smiling for what had to be the hundredth time.**

"**Ok… bye Akutare-san." She said as she turned to continue on her way.**

"**Good-bye… Tsuyoi-chan." ****He responded as he too turned and headed down the other end of the hallway.**

**As she walked back to her room Tsuyoi had one thought that continued to circle around in her brain.**

'**Akutare… The Hellion… what a strange name. Especially for someone like him. His name doesn't seem to fit his personality at all.'**

**0 0**

** The 19****th**** Arrancar walked slowly down the stark white halls of Las Noches; the only form of light came from the evenly spaced flame lamps that were mounted of the walls. The yellow and red flames flickered and danced lightly as the blond haired Arrancar headed deep into the core of Las Noches. This was a pain… seriously; he just had to live of the clear other side of Las Noches from the eighth Espada. Not to mention that the Espada's domain was in what you could think of as the basement of Las Noches. A terribly long walk really… but it couldn't be helped. He came to the large set of doors; a large, gothic-style black 8 was painted on the white doors. He pushed the doors open; they were heavy but not difficult to open at all. They swung open slowly, creaking loudly… jeez; need some oil or something. He continued to venture through the eighth Espada's lair, avoiding a variety of traps that were set to either mutilate or kill someone. The Arrancar had to admit… some of these traps were very well concealed and if he weren't as aware of things as he was he would have been caught in one of them by now. He weaved his way through the intricately placed traps; he moved slowly, as to not accidently set one of them off. Several hallways and a lot of cursing later he managed to get to the doors that lead into the eighth Espada's lab. Once he went through the labs he would have access to the Espada's living quarters. **

'**Stupid Aizen-dick face… asking to meet in the middle of the night.****' The blond Arrancar mentally seethed as he reached another door.**

** He figured that the eighth Espada was asleep, I mean come on; it was three in the morning for Hollow's sake. The only person he would expect to be up at this time was himself but he decided to knock anyways. Well… 'Knock' was the technical term. He banged on the door about ten times with the side of his fist. It was loud, really loud. That could easily wake the dead; he swore to himself that as soon as the Espada started hollering at him he was going to slam his fist into his face as hard as he could. Hell… he might even break the Espada's jaw out of annoyance and spite. **

** The door opened so fast and suddenly that it slammed against the wall and would have knocked the Arrancar over if he hadn't moved back in time. He was ready to fight if he needed to but what he saw next shocked him a bit. Out of the doorway came two... **_**creatures. **_**He wasn't really sure what they were but they didn't look completely humanoid. They were really small… only about three feet tall and had stubby arms and legs. Their bodies were roundish and they were wearing white uniforms with three black lines running down the front and around to the back. They were really weird looking and he seriously doubted that either of them were the eighth Espada. They were almost identical aside from the fact that the one on the right had a small pony-tail at the back of its head and the one on the left had two pigtails that flopped down on either sides of its face.**

"**Who are you!?" The one on the left asked. **

"**Who are you!?" The one on the right asked. **

"_**What are you doing here!?" **_**They asked in unison. **

**The 19****th**** Arrancar winced slightly, their voices sounded terrible… high pitched and squeaky. That was going to get old fast; he answered their question in the hopes that they wouldn't talk too much anymore.**

"**I'm looking for the eighth Espada… Szayel Aporro Granz; do either of you know where I could find him?" **

**The two blobish beings stopped their continuous bouncing in place and stared at the blue eyed Arrancar. They both let their gaze wonder between each other and the taller man; as if debating with themselves whether or not to answer the question. They seemed rather reluctant about giving him an answer, something the blond Arrancar couldn't understand.**

"**Why do you want to see Szayel Aporro-Sama?"**

"**Yeah, why? What do you want with Szayel-Sama?"**

"_**Why, Why, Why…" **_**They chanted loudly.**

"**Aizen has asked that me and Szayel speak with him as soon as possible; I came to fetch Szayel." ****The Arrancar answered evenly.**

** More staring at one another, debating the situation. The blond Arrancar realized that the two blobs must have been the eighth Espada's fracción; it made sense at this point. Still, who could put up with the two noisy creatures for a long period of time was beyond him. The eighth Espada must have had quite a bit a patience to be able to deal with those two all the time. **

"**Fine, follow us… we'll take you to Szayel Aporro-Sama." The one with the pony-tail said.**

"**Follow us… we'll show you the way." The one with pigtails spoke.**

"_**Follow us…follow us…follow us." **_**They chattered away loudly as they turned and headed back through the doorway. **

**He followed them silently making sure to watch out in case there were any more hidden traps that he didn't know about. He walked a few feet behind the round fracción, letting them lead the way to wherever it was they were going. It was a rather comical site though. The two blobish creatures didn't actually walk; they bounced up and down to get where they were going. They bounced up one at a time the first one landing as the other one jumped up. They appeared to be talking to themselves, whispers. The blond Arrancar couldn't tell what they were saying but he didn't ask as he continued to follow them into the labs of Hueco Mundo.**

"**How did you get past all the traps?" The pigtailed fracción questioned over its shoulder.**

"**Huh?" ****The blond Arrancar responded to the sudden question.**

"**You heard… how did you avoid the traps?" The one with the pony-tail repeated.**

"_**How…how…how?" **_** They demanded as they tried to look at the taller man while they bounced in the other direction.**

"**I was careful… nothing more." ****He answered at the two blobs almost knocked into one another because they weren't looking where they were going.**

"**Who are you that you're so carful huh?"The pony-tailed one asked.**

"**Yeah what's your name?" The other one asked.**

"_**Name…name…name…" **_

'**Do they always repeat words like that?' ****The blond wandered to himself before answering the new question.**

"**I don't really have a name…" **

"**What do you mean?" **

"**Everyone has a name!"**

'_**Everyone's got a name!' **_

'**Christ their really annoying...' ****The blond Arrancar thought as they entered another part of the large expansive lab.**

"**Well… if that's the case than what are your names?" **

**The two white blobs turned around in a flash and answered the question eagerly. **

"**Verona is Verona…" The one with the pony-tail stated while pointing to himself.**

"**And Lumina is Lumina…" The pigtailed one said pointing to herself like her identical counterpart.**

'**So their like twins and they refer to themselves in the third person… interesting. Verona is male and Lumina is female… I think.' **

"**Now you have to tell Verona your name!" He demanded while bouncing up and down excitedly.**

"**You have to tell Lumina too!" She stated, jumping up and down as well.**

"_**Tell us…tell us… tell us…" **_

'**Damn… their persistent.' **

"**I already told you both… I don't have a name." ****He told them as they walked past a room with large pull out shelves on the walls… a morgue or something of that nature.**

"_**Why not…Why not…?" **_**They questioned.**

"**After I became a Hollow I forgot what I was called as a human... and when I joined the Arrancar army I was never given a name". **

"_**But Verona and Lumina have to call you something!" **_**They told him as though it was such a terrible thing that they didn't have a name to call him by.**

**He chuckled to himself, they were annoying but they were also quite funny.**** "I have a title… they call me Akutare."**

"_**Akutare…?" **_**They said together, they seemed to be thinking about something. Something that dealt with the title he had. Since he didn't have a name everyone in Las Noches that knew him or had heard about him knew him by that title. It gained a lot of unwanted attention sometimes as well; mainly from moron's who wanted to see if the title fit the person who held it. Most of those fools ended up with something broken, or worse depending on how annoying they were and what mood the blond Arrancar happened to be in that day. In a nutshell; most people in Hueco Mundo had a least heard of him if they didn't know him. But the two beach ball Arrancar's didn't seem to recognize the name he had given them. They probably never left the eighth Espada's lab come to think of it. **

"**Verona's never heard that name before."**

"**Neither has Lumina…"**

'**Thought so… wonder why that surprises them though?' ****The blue eyed Arrancar wondered as they approached a set of white double doors.**

"**That means Szayel Aporro-Sama doesn't know you either." Lumina told him over her shoulder.**

"**How do ya figure that?"**

"'**Cause… Szayel Aporro-Sama keeps track of a lot of the Arrancar in Hueco Mundo." Verona informed him.**

"**And your name isn't on the list of the ones he watch's…" Lumina finished as both round Arrancar pushed the double doors open and bounced inside with the taller Arrancar right behind them.**

**The words 'ones he watch's' and 'keeps track of' made the double digit Arrancar feel **_**very**_** uncomfortable. The thought of being watched was at the very least… unappealing. He was silently thankful for the fact that the round Arrancar's had said that he wasn't one of the ones being watched. Still the thought of it made a cold shiver run down his spine. He had heard that the eighth Espada was one to do things like this but still… to heard straight from the man's fracción was not a nice thing to known. And something in his mind told him that after this encounter with the man he was going to make a point to start watching him.**

'**Mental note to self… start checking your room for hidden camera's after this.' ****He thought humorlessly to himself as he stepping into the room beyond the double doors.**

**The room was huge… like, pointlessly huge; high ceilings, large doors, the works. White of course… gods how he hated that color; the size of the room didn't help either. Walls lined with large metal tables stacked high with papers, test tubes, beakers, and a few microscopes. A few shiny metal gurneys were jammed in a far corner, the white sheets stained in several different places with what was almost certainly dry blood. The room smelled like chemicals…A.K.A: nauseating. Alcohol and antiseptic mostly; a bit of sulfur and maybe a touch of formaldehyde. The lighting was harsh as well; large overhead lights with way too bright bulbs; Christ how could anyone spend all their time is this place? At least it wasn't as dark and gruesome as he had heard it was. A lot of Arrancar's had said it was literally a death trap and the eighth Espada was always there just waiting for some poor fool to come too close to his domain so that he could experiment on them. It didn't look all that bad or danger though… that was probably what the morgue was for actually. The center of the room was occupied by a large square table about ten feet by ten feet. The table was mostly clean aside from the side closest to him. That side was covered with more test tubes and beakers and well as a few Bunsen burners. One of those burners was actually on at the moment; he thought he had smelled gas along with the other smells in the room. And next to the burner stood a man who could only be the eighth Espada. The 19th couldn't get a good look at him because his back was to him. The Espada was hunched over the table scribbling something on a piece of paper as several of the test tubes and beakers around him bubbled and fizzed with liquids of varying colors. He was so concerned with what he was doing that he didn't even seem to realize that someone else was in the room with him. **

'**Weird…' ****Was all the Arrancar could think… oh well; nothing to do about it at this point.**

** The two round fracción that had escorted him there bounced up to the man chanting his name to get his attention. It took them a few tries though; whatever he was writing down most have been important. (Important to him anyways… the 19****th**** Arrancar didn't really care all that much). **

"_**Master Szayel Aporro… Master Szayel Aporro… Master Szayel Aporro…" **_**The two beach balls chanted as they hopped up and down trying to get said man's attention.**

** The 19****th**** Arrancar was starting to think the Espada was deaf or something; that or he was just flat out ignoring his fracción. He couldn't imagine ignoring his own subordinates even if he didn't have any to ignoring to start with. Even as the 19****th**** Arrancar he hadn't been picked to be an Espada's fracción (something he was glad about really). Still he was pretty sure that an Espada should respect their fracción a bit more than this guy was at the moment. **

"**WHAT!" **

**The shout was so sudden that it made the blond Arrancar jump a bit. Looking back at the Espada he realized that the man was finally paying his fracción some attention. But it wasn't really nice attention… he seemed to be pissed at them for no good reason at all. The two fracción cowered in fear at their master's angry voice. Obviously they were used to this sort of behavior from the Espada; and they made a point to avoid his wrath. But this time there was no getting away from it; the man really didn't want to be bothered. The man was shouting at them again; about how he was too busy to deal with whatever mess they had caused or whatever they had broken. He told them to deal with it themselves and leave him be so he could complete his work in peace. Verona and Lumina were shaking so badly at this point as one tried to hide behind the other. **

"**B-but… Master Szayel Aporro…" Verona began.**

"**S-someone is here t-to see y-you." Lumina finished.**

"**I don't care! Tell them to go away; I'm much too busy to deal with such inferior beings!" **

**Blue eyes narrowed in the direction of the eighth Espada; the 19****th**** Arrancar had never understood why people with more power thought they could treat those weaker than them however they wanted. It pissed him off to no end. The two fracción bounced back over to him; their once energetic demeanor long gone. They were shaking so much they couldn't even sit still; they weren't just afraid of their master though. They were also afraid of him; of what he would do to them if they didn't do as he had asked. He could tell to by the looks on their faces. They were frightened beyond words. That pissed him off more… it was bad enough they were afraid of the Espada but his treatment towards them made them think that everyone was going to treat them that way. It pissed him off almost as bad as the color white.**

**When he stepped forward the two round fracción cringed back in fear; certain that they were going to be harmed by the blond Arrancar. He ignored them though; he had more important things to deal with… like getting that stupid Espada to Aizen before the Ex-Shinigami had a cow because of how long it took for them. He walked around the small Arrancar's and approached the Espada who still had his head buried in the papers in front of him. He was surprised that he man hadn't noticed his spiritual pressure yet actually; how had he become an Espada again? Not that he was even releasing any of his spiritual energy, but still. The Espada stood up a bit straighter; he had a test tube in both of his hands. He tipped one over slightly and carefully began pouring the liquid from one into the other. The 19****th**** Arrancar grinned evilly… he didn't know what the chemicals were but he figured that since the Espada had ignored him all together he could use those chemicals to get the man's attention. He focused his spiritual pressure on the test tubes in the man's hands and released it quickly and sharply. The energy caused the test tubes the man was holding and a few others on the table to shatter into thousands of tiny pieces. The many different colored liquids splatter across the table mixing together and staining the papers ever color of the rainbow. The Espada let out a startled yelp as broken glass slipped from his hands and the two liquids he had been trying to mix collided in the air. He managed to avoid getting the chemicals on his uniform but the notes he had been taking moments before were not as lucky. The two liquids completely soaked the papers they fell on, smearing the ink and making it totally eligible. If that weren't bad enough the two chemicals ended up being highly combustible so seconds later they began to sizzle and cause the paper to catch fire. It didn't last long but it was a rather entertaining spectacle none the less. **

"**What the hell?!" the Espada shouted as he wiped around to face the lower ranked arrancar.**

**He was finally able to get a good look at the Espada now that he had turned to face him. The man was about as tall as himself, maybe an inch or two shorter and he wore a skin tight jacket that want up to his neck and even covered his hands. His eyes that looked like molten gold and were covered with a pair of glasses that were actually his mask fragment. He didn't look at all impressive but the 19****th**** Arrancar was a bit thrown off by the man's hair. Bright pink… cotton candy colored strands that just barely brushed against his shoulders. That was an interesting hair color to say the least.**

**The first word that came to the Arrancar's mind was fruitcake… I mean come on; the man's appearance screamed it. Oddly enough the color seemed to fit the man for some reason, fruitcake or no. He had to give the Espada credit; no one else that he had met could pull that color off. His attention was quickly drawn away from the man's hair however and was now focused on his eyes. More specifically the fact that the Espada's eyes were burning into his own like the sun itself. He wasn't too happy at all. **

"**Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my lab." The Espada spoke coldly.**

**The 19****th**** Arrancar opened his mouth to explain himself but the Espada spoke first.**

"**Actually… on second thought I don't really care what your name is. I just want you gone as soon as possible." The man said as he ran his gloved fingers through his hair.**

'**Arrogant… I hate people like this. 'He's already getting on my nerves…' **

**The blond Arrancar thought to himself.**

"**I'm the 19****th**** Arrancar, as I'm sure you can tell…" ****He said pointing to the number tattooed on his cheek.**

"**I was told that Lord Aizen wanted to see me and the eighth Espada as soon as possible. So… I came to fetch you so we can see what the man wants. However… you didn't seem too concerned about the fact that someone was here to see you. So I decided to… get your attention. And I must say it worked out rather well." ****The blond Arrancar finished as he looked at the mess he had caused.**

**The Espada narrowed his eyes slightly as the man spoke. He seemed to be telling the truth but still. The Espada ran the man's appearance through his head but he came up empty… he had never seen this guy before. That bugged him… he kept tabs on most of the Arrancar in Hueco Mundo. But this guy… this guy he didn't have any information on. How had the spiky haired blond escaped his attention for so long? He was a researcher… a man of knowledge and wisdom. And not knowing anything about the man in front of him made him feel… **_**uneasy. **_

"**If by 'it worked out rather well' you mean almost blowing me and the rest of my lab up then yes. However you could have gotten my attention a lot easier than such a meaningless, barbaric manner." The Espada stated in a matter of fact manner as he pushed up his glasses with his left hand.**

"**Well… it was either that, kicking you in the side, or punching you in the back of the head. So… be glad I decided to be nice." ****The blond Arrancar stated blankly.**

**The Espada blinked at the other man a few times; not sure if he had heard correctly. Did he just say that he had planned to strike at him? The nerve… the audacity! Who the hell was this guy… what Arrancar opening talked like that to someone of superior rank? This guy had a death wish or something. He had to get this guy's name and start keeping up with him.**

"**Now… if you don't mind I would like to go see what the fuck Aizen wants so that I can get back to my room and go to sleep before I become part of the desert sands themselves." **** The Arrancar said without an ounce of humor in his voice.**

**The pink haired Espada didn't what to have to be around this guy any longer than was strictly necessary. So he decided to go with him to see what Aizen wanted so that he could be done with the blond man and get back to his work. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the broken glass and liquid stains and scowled to himself. He would have to clean that up later but for now he had to follow the blond Arrancar. The 19****th**** Arrancar walked a few paces ahead of him out the double doors and into the next room. The Espada slowed his walking pace as he passed his two round fracción and gave them a glare that promised a lot of pain and suffering in the future. They apologized quickly before turning and hoping away as fast as they could. With a sigh the Espada exited the room and walked up to the waiting Arrancar.**

"**Lead the way…" He said; his voice tinted with the slightest layer of venom.**

"**Whatever you say…" ****If the blond man noticed the tone he didn't show it.**

**The two men walked out of the labs and the basement of Hueco Mundo in silence. The Espada wondering how the man in front of him had gone under his radar and what Aizen-Sama could possibly want with both of them at four in the morning. Hopefully whatever it was it wouldn't be something too important or time consuming; he had experiments to get back to after all. **

**Chapter End:**

**Done with the first chapter of this story *sigh* finally. Sorry for the length... the rest of the chapters shouldn't be quite this long. (Than again about five thousand of the words were part of all the explaining I did at the beginning *Anime Sweat drop*… yeah; sorry bout that.) **

**Anywayyysss… hope u guys liked it ok. Nothing much going on in the first chapter but you see where it's going in chapter 2.**

**Chapter 2: Meeting with everyone favorite Ex-Shinigami (Aka… Aizen) Ugh… :/**

**Don't worry it'll be ok… my OC's gonna piss him off, right Akutare!**

**Akutare: "Totally Writer-Sama!"**

**Yeah! So… read, review (nicely) and let me know what u think!**

_**Peace Out!**_

**Virgo-24**


	2. Chapter 2

**Love in the Madness**

**I'm BACK!**

**Holy Crap! It's been that long since I posted the first chapter?!**

**Yeah… sorry 'bout that.**

**I had planned to update this a bit faster but College turned into a crazy load of bull at the start of November.**

**In short… I've been busy as hell. I had more book reports and essay's then I want to even think about.**

**LUCKLY! Fall Semester is over! I don't go back to school til the seventh of January. **

**Plenty of time to type until my fingers are sore.**

**So… picking up where I left off… going to see Aizen… oh boy.**

**Well… hope you all like it… sorry for the really, really, really long wait.**

**(Oh and also… in my first chapter I stuck some pics in at the beginning but after uploading it I realized they weren't there. Then I remembered that Fan-Fiction is weird about that sort of thing… *Sweat Drop*. Sorry… You'll just have to use your imagination on that.)**

**Disclaimer: ****Bleach is not mine in anyway… trust me, it's not. Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.**

"…"**-Talking '…'-Thinking (…)-Anything else I think of.**

**Chapter 2 (finally) starts… NOW!**

**Chapter 2: Tea with Aizen**

"_I do not disrespect him because I am a disrespectful person. I do so because he has no respect for me either. And by disrespecting one another, the worst that can come of it is that we drive each other to total madness." _

_**-Unknown**_

Goldenrod eyes burned into the back of the other man's skull. The other man was of course aware of this fact but he didn't voice his awareness nor did he really give a shit. Although it was true that having the feeling of someone's eyes bearing down on you was uncomfortable it wasn't the worst feeling in the world by any means. The 19th Arrancar knew he had pissed the Espada off, of course he knew it; that had been the whole point of breaking the scientist's lab equipment. Still, he didn't see why the pink haired man was so upset; it wasn't like him didn't have hundreds more test tubes laying around his lab somewhere.

The Espada walked several paces behind him as they walked towards Aizen's private throne room. The Espada was trying to deduce things about the lower ranked Arrancar that walked in front of him was though he was the one of higher rank. It annoyed the Espada but he kept his mouth shut as he continued to observe and process as much about the spiky haired man as he possibly could. It really threw the Espada off to not already know everything about the other man. The Espada mentally scolded himself for not being better prepared. Still, his cunning mind had already determined several parts of the man's personality and behavior.

The man clearly resented people with higher power and authority, judging by the way he spoke to an Espada in such an informally and downright rude manner. He was also arrogant and overconfident in his own abilities, like many of the weaker Arrancar tended to be. The Espada wanted to spit in disgust; how dare this worthless and intellectually inferior being speak to him, he, scientist of Hueco Mundo in such a way. Szayel knew he wasn't the best fighter out of the ten Espada and that he would much rather be an onlooker from the safety of his lab but the Espada was really thinking about killing this useless wretch right at that moment. He knew almost nothing about the bleach blond haired man and he already wanted him dead. Still, he would make an interesting subject to study. But at this point the Octavia was so annoyed with the stupidity of the blond haired man that he would have gladly returned to his section of Las Noches and never deal with the other man again. But Aizen-Sama had called for them both, so there was nothing he could do about it. With a sigh the Espada prepared himself for the coming conversation with Aizen and the blond haired Arrancar.

The Octavia Espada suddenly stopped in his tracks; he had once again been so deep in thought that he didn't realize that the other man had stopped walking. Not only that, the man had turned around and was staring at him intently. The blue eyed man stared at the Espada; Szayel couldn't tell what the man was thinking but judging by the way he was being stared at it was clear that the taller Arrancar wanted to say something to him.

"Nani*?" The Espada questioned as he shifted his weight and crossed his arms.

"Is there any good explanation as to why you're glaring at the back of my head in such a way?" The Arrancar asked, slight boredom inn his words.

"What are you talking about?" The Espada demanded, shocked that the man and actually noticed.

"You heard me, _Espada…_" 

"Does it really matter anyways?" Szayel answered with an exaggerated wave of a hand.

"It does…" 

"And why is that?" The Octavia said, trying to dodge the question once again.

The blond Arrancar was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"Ha… I know what it is you're trying to do." 

"Oh… is that so?"

"Indeed…"

"Well… by all means, please elaborate." The Espada snapped, clearly unhappy with the other man's statement.

"You're a scientist, the one that knows everything about everything, including everyone in Las Noches. But me, you don't know everything about me; in fact I'm pretty sure that you had never even heard of me until I came knocking on the door to your lab. That bugs you… being unprepared. I've heard a bit about you… I know that you're a perfectionist and so not having every single detail about me on hand really pisses you off. I also know that you're a narcissist. But…that's a subject I don't have time to get into at the moment."

"You were glaring at me in anger, but that isn't the end of it at all. You've been trying to figure out as much about me as you can by simple observation; but not the full in-depth way you would prefer. You can only tell so much about a person through quick conversation; you would much rather have me strapped to a table in your lab so you could cut me up or had a camera watching everything I did. But you don't have that luxury at the moment."

"And by far, the most interesting thing I've heard about you is that you're insane. I'm not one to judge the mental state of someone that I don't really know but according to many in Las Noches, you are completely bonkers. Then again, your death aspect is Madness, so what do they expect? But don't worry; I won't tell anyone, after all… you could always argue that it takes a crazy to know a crazy." 

As the Arrancar spoke Szayel got angrier; so angry in fact that his spiritual pressure had spiked way up. The 19th could feel the heavy weight press down full force on his shoulders. It didn't bother him much but it was slightly impressive to say the least. The Espada was glaring at him again; the intensity in his golden orbs ten times as much as when he had been glared at the back of the other man's head. If only looks were deadly…

The Espada's hands were clamped into tight fists; his way of preventing himself from strangling the taller man right on the spot. How dare he speak to him that way; the eighth Espada in Aizen's army; being preached to by someone of inferior rank and intelligence. Szayel wanted to rip the man's head clean off his shoulders at that moment. He was seriously about to lose it, he was an impatient man after all. And at the moment the pink haired Espada had almost drained all the patience that he did have on this loud mouth números. How had this man gotten under his skin that easily? He was a worm compared to his own perfection but he had managed to piss the Espada off almost as much as his two idiotic fracción.

Seeing that he had ran his mouth a bit more than he should have the blond Arrancar removed his hands from his pant pockets and held them up in mock surrender before speaking again.

"Listen… I don't really care for you all that much; and I can tell that you _really _don't think much of me either. So how about this… we go see what the fuck Aizen wants, then we return to our own quarters and never have to deal with each other again. What do ya say?"

Szayel really wanted to see the man in front of him bleed; but he also wanted to get as far away from him as quick as possible and never have to be bothered with him ever again. Taking a few deep breaths Szayel composed himself, his spiritual pressure dimming and slowly returning to normal. His arms were still crossed and he still looked rather angry but at least he didn't look like he was going to kill someone (at the moment).

"Very well…" The Espada seethed.

"Excellent! Now come on, Aizen's gonna blow a fuse if we don't move our asses." The blond man exclaimed before turning on his heel and starting down the hall once again.

Szayel come do nothing but blink a few times before following the taller man. The Espada quickly decided that if anyone in Las Noches was really crazy it was the blond haired Arrancar in front of him.

**0 0**

The large white doors of Aizen's throne room loomed in front of the two Arrancar. The blond haired one looked halfway bored out of his mind while the pink haired one looked the slightest bit nervous. Although he would never actually admit to the fact that he was uncomfortable with the current situation. Szayel knew that getting called down to see Aizen-Sama in his throne room meant that you had most likely done something that Aizen was displeased with. And if Aizen was displeased with you then you may as well have impaled yourself on your own sword than face the wrath of an angry Aizen. But Szayel also knew that he hadn't done anything (recently) to warrant Aizen's anger; which left him all the more confused as to why he was there at all. No time to ponder it now though.

The heavy white doors slowly swung outwards, revealing a male arrancar with short red hair and brown eyes. He and the 19th exchanged a few words before the red head pushed the doors open more and allowed Szayel and his companion to enter the throne room. The room was, like most throne rooms huge beyond belief. And of course completely white; the blond wanted to groan aloud at the amount of white taking up his vision. He could already feel the beginnings of a headache straight from hell. He and Szayel were silent as they walked closer to the large chair mounted at the top of a ridiculously number of steps. The 19th rolled his eyes; Aizen was by far the vainest man he had ever met in his very long existence. He just had to let everyone in the wasteland of Hueco Mundo know that he was the most powerful son of a bitch that had ever lived.

The chair swiveled around, revealing Aizen in all his twisted glory. The large window on the wall behind his chair was completely blacked out by the night aside from a steady stream of moonlight that was cast over him. The rest of the room was dimly lit with flame torches that caused the shadows to dance across the white floor and walls. The room reminded the 19th too much of purgatory for his liking. The room was also unbelievably cold, like some sort of walk-in freezer. The 19th swore that he saw the thin white wisps of his breath float away as he exhaled from his nose. The cold didn't seem to bother the great Aizen though; he just sat in his chair quiet as the grave. He was smiling… not a real, believable smile but that fake one he always wore. The one that said he knew what you were thinking or that he was amused with something that you had no freaking clue about. That in and of itself was a very bad sign. That smile really worried Szayel and made the blond haired man next to him want to crater Aizen's whole face in. Yeah… this was going to be bad.

Aizen continued to gaze at the two Arrancar in front of him; smile still in place as he sat lazily in his chair. One leg crossed over the other and head resting against his knuckles… he looked bored but Szayel recognized the glint in his leaders brown eyes. Aizen was thinking of something; a task to give himself and the blond Arrancar maybe. Or a punishment of some sorts; Szayel seriously hoped that whatever Aizen had summoned them for it didn't involve any punishment. Hueco Mundo help the Arrancar that managed to piss Aizen off. Said Shinigami slowly stood up, looking down on the two summoned Arrancar's with that sick smile of his still in place. Finally he spoke…

"Good evening, Szayel…Akutare…welcome. So glad that you could make it." The man's deep voice sounded, bouncing off the empty walls of the throne room.

"Of course… Aizen-Sama*." The eighth Espada answered as he knelled on one knee with his head bowed.

Szayel expected the 19th Arrancar to follow suit and bow in respect to Aizen-Sama. But nothing happened. Akutare remained standing, his hands still jammed in his pockets, his body leaned back slightly so that he wasn't standing up straight. His face was blank as he and Aizen locked eyes for a moment. Szayel couldn't see very well from his position but he was able to glance to the side a bit. Not only had the man not addressed Aizen, ha hadn't even made a move to bow in respect. He just kept staring straight ahead, like everything was just fine with the world. Szayel's eyes widened although neither Aizen nor Akutare noticed as they were too busy staring at one another. What the hell was wrong with this guy? It was one thing to be disrespectful toward Aizen behind closed door, but to his face? The blond may as well have taken a cero straight to the chest; he was just begging to be killed. Finally after a long tense moment Akutare nodded his head in Aizen's direction; that was the only form of acknowledgment the Arrancar felt like giving the brown haired Shinigami at the moment. Aizen's brown eyes darkened slightly and that annoying false smile he wore disappeared altogether. It only lasted for a second before Aizen's expression returned to how it had been moments ago.

"You may stand Szayel." Aizen spoke as he moved slowly down the steps.

"Thank-you, Aizen-Sama…" Szayel answered as he stood up, making sure that the look of shock was no longer present on his face.

"Please, both of you come and take a seat." Aizen offend, waving his arm towards a small table with several chairs off to the side of the room.

The two Arrancar followed Aizen to the small table and took their seats; this was another bad sign. Usually with Aizen he told you what to do then sent you away. Whatever he wanted it wasn't going to be as simple or mundane like most of his ordered tended to be. At least the pink haired Espada was positive that he hadn't been called down here because he was going to be punished. If he were going to be accosted by Aizen it would had happened by now. Szayel would have really liked to say that this was a fact but he could never tell what the hell Aizen was thinking or planning. That's one of the reasons that the man scared him; for all of Szayel's genius he could never predict with complete certainty what Aizen was going to do.

Aizen took a seat on one side of the table, placing his elbows on the white marble surface of the table and intertwining his fingers together so that he could rest his chin on his hands. He only did that at meetings when he wanted to look out over his ten strongest fighters. He was doing the same thing now, but the fact that he was only across the table made the feeling of being observed all the more uncomfortable for Szayel (since he was the one that liked to be the observer rather than the one getting observed). Szayel picked the chair on the left on the opposite side of the table (Aizen's right). He sat straight up, ridged as a bean pole with his arms at his side. Akutare sat in the right chair (Aizen's left). He was almost as bad with his sitting style as Nnoitra. The blond sat leaning back in the chair; his body turned slightly to the right so that his right leg could hang over the arm of the chair. His left leg stuck out straight as the blond lazily tapped his heel against the marble floor a few times. His right arm was behind the back of the chair, his fingers griping top wooden edge. His left arm rested across his stomach and rose and fell with the moment of his chest. Szayel briefly wandered how the man could even be comfortable siting in such an odd fashion.

"Yo… you gonna tell us what the hell ya called us here for or not?" Akutare questioned sounding very annoyed.

"Of course, but first… tea." Aizen said as a female servant with a tea cart came over to pour the pre-mentioned tea.

'You and your damned tea!' The blond mentally snapped.

Even Szayel winced at the mention of tea. Aizen always had tea severed at Espada meetings; the problem was that the tea was disgusting. Every single time, not matter what, the tea was bitter. Since Arrancar's didn't have to eat Szayel couldn't really say that he was well versed in the art of tea making. However he was pretty certain that tea was not meant to be as bitter as the dark green liquid that Aizen seemed to enjoy. Szayel had actually taken the time to research (go figure) the type of tea that Aizen had the Espada drink. It was called Gyokuro*, it was one of the finest and most expensive forms of tea from Japan and was known for its sweet flavor. Szayel could have laughed aloud when he read that bit of information. The tea was most certainly _not _sweet.

Akutare was not looking forward to this; at a normal Espada meeting it was easy to fake drinking the revolting tea since the Espada sat further away from Aizen. But that wouldn't fly here; even though he wasn't an Espada Gyokuro tea was the pretty much the only type of tea you could get in Hueco Mundo (unless you went the human world and got your own). Akutare remembered being a kid and his mother had told him he was going to start eating more veggies. His mother (bitch that she was) tried to make him eat raw kale leaves. That taste was the only thing that he could think of that was anywhere close to the bitterness of the tea he was going to be served.

"Akutare-Sama… so nice to see you again."

The blond glanced at the person who had addressed him and quickly recognized the person. It was Mizu… one of the many servant level Arrancar that resided in Las Noches. Akutare knew most of the lower level Arrancar including Mizu. She was a young woman with light brown hair and green eyes. She wore a grey servant's outfit and her mask fragment (a hair clip shaped like a crescent moon) was clipped into her hair just above her left ear. She was one of Akature's closest friends but she still referred to him as 'Sama' even though he didn't like such a high title to his name. Grinning ear to ear Akutare extended his right hand out to the young woman. She smiled back, accepted his offered hand. Without a word the male Arrancar brought the woman's soft hand to his lip and planted a small kiss on the back of her hand. He did this with many female Arrancar; a sign of old fashion chivalry in his opinion.

"Mizu-chan, it is good to see you again as well." The blond said, still holding onto her hand.

"What have you been up to?"

"Nothin' much, just the normal work I have to do and such."

"Translation, being lazier than hell… right?"

"Mizu…I'm offended." The blond Arrancar said, placing his free hand over the place where his heart would have been.

"If you say so…" The female replied with a smirk.

Szayel listened to the two Arrancar speak with one another; it confused him. Since when do Arrancar get along like that or treat each other with respect? The 19th Arrancar's behaviors went against everything that a Hollow was meant to be. Szayel had to figure out how this man functioned before his strange behaviors drove the scientist crazy(er).

"Oh, Mizu…"

"Yes?"

Don't suppose you have any Shou Mei* tea brewed up, do ya?" The blond Arrancar asked, hoping that the answer was yes so that he could escape the fate of Aizen's bitter tea.

"Started brewing some the minute I found out you would be here."

"You're an angel." Akutare said, finally releasing her hand so that she could actually pour the tea.

Akutare wasn't much of a tea drinker to start with, but he did have a fancy for Shou Mei tea with honey and sugar. Mizu knew how he hated the bitter green tea that Aizen always had served and made sure to have a nice stock of Shou Mei tea leaves on hand. Akutare couldn't help but grin like the Cheshire Cat; although it was as simple as a difference in tea flavor in Hueco Mundo where Aizen was in control of everything drinking a different tea then him could almost be considered flipping him off. Well, maybe not but it sure felt like it to Akutare.

Aizen and Szayel's tea was served first; Aizen still held that wicked smile on his face while Szayel was doing the best he could not to wrinkle his nose at the strong smell of the tea in front of him. It didn't even smell good so it most certainly wouldn't taste worth a shit either. Akutare got his tea last; the liquid was a dark, milky yellow and smelled wonderful. Szayel felt a pang of envy towards the blond haired Arrancar; where the fuck did he get his own tea from anyways? Aizen seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Now where did you get _those _tea leaves from Akutare?" The brown bitch curl questioned the blond.

"Uh… the Human World." The blond deadpanned as though the answer was obvious.

"And why were you in the World of the Living to begin with?" Aizen demanded.

'You really are on a suicide path, aren't you?' The pink haired spectator thought to himself as Aizen continued to grill the 19th Arrancar.

"Well, ya see… D***1** and Forte***2** were yakkin' 'bout going to the Living World. I was bored so I talked to Grimm***3** and he said I could tag along as long as I didn't "get in the way of him killin' the shit out of all them damned Soul Reapers." I made sure to grab some tea leaves for myself, since I was there and all."

"I see… Was all Aizen said before dropping the subject.

The whole time Szayel was trying desperately to make sure he remembered to breath. Oh wait, he didn't have to breath; what the hell was wrong with him? Oh right, the man next to him was just trying to tick Aizen-Sama off. Szayel wanted to be very far away when that happened but that wasn't really an option at the moment. The whole situation was making his brain work overtime and he could alright feel the beginnings of a headache forming at his temples.

"So, get to explaining why we're here before I die of boredom." The 19th complained as he brought the tea cup to his lips; he didn't actually drink it rather inhaled the sweet smelling steam.

"Patience…" Was Aizen's one word response before he took a sip of his own tea.

'Why don't you just go ahead and choke on that tea?' The 19th Arrancar thought with spite.

"I have a task that I need done. And I need both of you to help with it." The Ex-Shinigami stated evenly.

'Work… with him?!' Szayel thought panicked; there was no way in hell.

"Aizen-Sama… I am the eighth Espada; I'm sure I can handle this task on my own." Szayel said, hoping to convince Aizen but also not sound like he was complaining.

"Oi! I'm right here ya damned Espada!" Akutare shouted louder than necessary; he was slightly offended and he wanted the pink haired man to know about it.

Szayel looked at Aizen, expecting the man to scold the blond Arrancar for his words or at least calm him down. But Aizen just sat there, his brown eyes shining with barely hidden malice and… amusement? Szayel instantly knew that there was no way out of these. Aizen was doing this on purpose, just one if many ways the Aizen liked to screw with the Arrancar under his thumb. Making them do things they really didn't what to… gods; sometimes Szayel wondered why he even bothered.

"I'm sure that Szayel didn't mean to offend you Akutare. Did you Szayel?" Aizen asked; he tried to sound uncaring but Szayel caught the humor in the man's voice. He thought the whole thing was funny.

"No… I did not." Szayel answered, not even looking at the person he had offended; he really didn't care if the blond was insulted or not.

Akutare called the scientist's bluff. He locked eyes with the pink haired Espada, his face held no emotion or expression as he spoke.

"Lying… Son of a bitch…" 

Szayel's jaw could have hit the floor. Never, _ever_, had someone spoke to him with such disrespect. What was wrong with this guy? Why was Aizen not scolding him? The world had surely stopped turning. Szayel glanced at Aizen but the Shinigami didn't seem at all bothered that a lower ranked Arrancar had just insulted his eighth Espada. What the hell? Szayel quickly recovered from the shock and (after picking his jaw up off the floor) decided to get out of this meeting as soon as possible.

"Aizen-Sama… what is it that you need us to do?" The pink haired man asked, hoping to get this conversation back on track.

"Ah, yes… of course. Well, the reason that I want two Arrancar to do this is that this task is very important to my plans of taking over the Soul Society. I have no doubt that either one of you could do this on your own; but you can't be too careful." Aizen told the two Arrancar.

"And what is this 'important thing' that we've got to do?" Akutare questioned, he was now rather interested in what this task could be.

"Akutare…Szayel…your job from here on out… is to be the caretakers of Inoue Orihime."

Unfortunately for Szayel he had been trying to drink the terribly bitter tea at that exact moment. He almost spat the tea all over the place but then he remembered that Aizen was right across the table from him (that would have been really bad). But really?! That was what he had to do? Babysit the human?! Why him?! This was some really sick joke.

"Inoue Orihime? You mean the human that the Cuarta nabbed from the Human World?"  Akutare questioned, he didn't seem surprised at the news, just more curious.

"Yes, that is correct." Aizen said, watching in amusement as the Eighth Espada tried (and failed) to act unaffected by the news.

"So, why isn't the Cuarta watching after her? He was the one to capture her after all." 

"I need high ranking Espada's for more important things than babysitting." Aizen stated simply.

"Right…"

"You will begin your new duties tomorrow; you will bring our guest her lunch and inform her that you will both be watching over her from now on. Remember, this is a very important task that I am giving to you both. Of, and if any harm comes to her… you're punishment will be far worse than death. Do you both understand?"

"If ya say so." 

"O-of course, Aizen-Sama." Szayel answered, finally finding his voice after the shock wore off.

"Good, Szayel… you may leave. Akutare, please stay for a moment I wish to speak with you a bit more."

"T-thank-you sir." Szayel said before getting up and making a b-line for the door, wanting to get as far away as possible.

Aizen waited until Szayel was gone before returning his attention to the blond haired Arrancar across from him.

"You'd better have a hell of a good reason for paring me with him." Akutare seethed as he ground his molars together.

"Come now... you're smart… maybe even smarter than Szayel sometimes… you must know the answer to that question."

"Course I do…You want an Espada to watch her, ya don't trust anyone of a lower rank. But Ulquiorra was by far the best option such he's so damn loyal. But if he can't do it that leaves nine other Espada to choose from. You need Espada's one through four for more important things of course. Zommari and Aaoniero are out, for obvious reasons. That leaves Grimmjow, Yammy, and Nnoitra… but; you know as well as me that they'd all kill the poor girl."

"That just leaves Szayel Aporro… although personally I think he would be the worst choose by far. You know that he would just love to experiment on her to no end. But that's why I'm here… right? You know I won't let an innocent be hurt. If he try's anything it's my job to stop him… am I correct?"

"You are indeed correct."

"This begs the question as to why I can't do this by myself."

"You are only ranked 19th…"

"Don't pull that card… I could take down all of the Espada at once… that's why you gave me my real rank."

"That is true… but that is something that you can't reveal."

"Whatever ya say."

"Besides… Szayel knows better than to cause too much trouble."

"Right…"

"You disagree?"

"Aizen… your eighth Espada is an effeminate, pink haired fruitcake that likes to experiment on people and probably eats their organs after he kills them." The blond stated, he was so blunt that Aizen chuckled at the statement.

"Ha… that may be true… but like you said, that's why you're here."

"Whatever…" The Arrancar sighed as he stood to leave.

"Oh, and Akutare…"

"Hmm…"

"In the future… show more respect to me in the presence of others. We wouldn't want people to think badly of you."

Akutare heard the threat in those words but he didn't care. He nodded his head before heading to the door. Just before leaving though the Arrancar spoke over his shoulder once more.

"Aizen…"

"Yes…?"

"Please tell Gin that eavesdropping is almost as rude as not addressing someone properly." With that the blond pushed the large wooden doors open, exited the room, and let the doors shut again with a slam.

In an instant the fox Shinigami stepped out of the shadows that had been masking his presence since the two Arrancar had entered the room.

"_Oh my… he knew I was here? I wonder how he managed that?" _

"He is very observant…I'm surprised that he didn't say something before."

"_Ya mean he knew I was here from the start? I see… so that's why ya wanted him ta watch Orihime-chan huh?"_

"Indeed…"

"_This'll be very interestin' ta see how it goes." _The fox said, his eternal smile stretching even wider as he disappeared into the shadows once again.

**0 0**

**Done… yeah! Awesome…**

**Japanese Dictionary:**

**Nani- ****What**

**Sama- ****Lord/Master**

**Gyokuro- ****form of Japanese green tea… translates as 'Wild Bitter Tea'**

**Shou Mei- ****a white tea originating from China… known for being bolder in taste than most white teas… translates as 'Long Life Eyebrow' (that may not be right, sorry…)**

**1*-_****Akutare's way of referring to D-Roy Rinker**

**2*-**** Akutare's way of referring to Illforte Grantz**

**3*- ****Akature's way of referring to Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez **

**That's everything… sorry again bout the wait.**

**This chapter was really just a lot of talking but I hope it is ok.**

**Next Chapter… meeting Orihime!**

**Also… the world didn't end… I don't believe that crap but my step-father… well… never mind… you get the idea. **

**So… since the world is ok I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!**

**Also… God bless the souls of the people killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School and all their families. I cried when I heard about it. I had to call my little brother after school let out just to make sure he was ok. In Rowan County North Carolina (where I'm from) All the schools were in a code yellow lock down today because of threats posted on Facebook and Twitter. Really… this stuff is serious… it isn't a joke in any way. **

**(I don't mean to rant but come on…)**

**Anyways… read and review.**

**Love u all.**

**Peace Out!**

_**Virgo-24**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Love in the Madness**

**I'm Not DEAD!**

**Oh my freakin' crap! **

**OK…really, Really, really, REALLY damn sorry about it being forever since I updated. College is a frackin' Bitch!**

**Anyways, its spring break right now and I can give you this chapter to make up for my lateness.**

**Disclaimer: ****Bleach is not mine … trust me, it's not. Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.**

"…"**-Talking '…'-Thinking (…)-Anything else I think of.**

**Chapter Three Starts…NOW!**

**Chapter 3: The Princess and her Guards**

_Crazy people are considered mad by the rest of the world only because their intelligence isn't understood."_

_**-Weihui Zhou **_

Szayel Aporro stood stone still in one of the numerous white hallways of Las Noches. He was waiting for Akutare to arrive so they could both head to the human girl's room and inform her that they were her new guards. The blond menace should have been there at noon; it was already twelve-fifteen and the pink haired male was getting annoyed fast. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot; the impatience was radiating off of him. Another five minutes of waiting and the blond arrancar finally appeared around the corner. Szayel really wanted to just bite the man's head off but he managed to hold his tongue. The mad scientist really didn't want to deal with a human prisoner and the blond arrancar but he feared Aizen's wrath more than anything.

"You're late…" The eighth Espada hissed as he glared at the blond who looked like he was daydreaming.

"No my friend, you are just early."

Akutare walked right past the Espada without another word; he wasn't thrilled about this assignment either. The two Arrancar's headed in the direction of the human's room both wanting to be as far away from the other as possible. Akutare was actually rather excited about meeting the human girl. He needed something to entertain his mind and staring at white walls wasn't going to work. Down one white hallway, up another, through an archway, down some steps, up some more steps.

"This place needs a fuckin' elevator." The blond arrancar grumbled to himself.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Szayel demanded as he followed behind the blond.

"Yes… it's up in one of the five towers of Las Noches."

"That seems a little out of the way."

"It is…but that's the idea. What better way to make sure that a prisoner doesn't get away than putting them at the highest point possible?"

"Wow… I didn't realize that you could actually come up with a half intelligent answer." Szayel said with spite in his voice.

"I'm going to ignore that last comment Espada. Although I do suggest that you learn how to hold your words. In the near future I may be more inclined to punch you in that smart mouth of yours."

"HaHaHa… Do you really think that you can harm me? I outrank you…"

Before the pink haired Espada could finish his sentence Akutare had whipped around and grabbed the smaller man's throat. The blond arrancar shoved the higher ranked man against the nearest wall. Golden eyes widened as narrowed misty blue eyes glared back. The blond arrancar lifted the pink haired scientist off his feet, leaving him to dangle a few inches off the ground. Pressure was applied to the scientist's neck and his eyes widened more as his ability to breathe was slowly being cut off. Lower rank or not Szayel quickly realized that the blond arrancar to easily best him in a physical fight. Akutare placed his thumb directly over the other man's windpipe and pressed down sharply. The sadistic side of him enjoyed the pink haired man's struggle to breath but his rational side knew that he had to let the Espada go.

"Listen Espada… you really, really piss me off. I know you can't stand having to do this; so just shut the hell up and get over it. There's no way out of this 'assignment' for either of us; so you may as well suck it up. I don't give a fuck what your rank is. You could be ranked number one for all I care. But no matter what you rank is; if you push me, I'll cut you up and stick you in a hole out in the desert someplace where no one will ever be able to find you. Got it?"

The Espada give a weak nod before Akutare finally released him. Szayel quickly regained his footing, rubbing his throat were red finger prints were already forming. Akutare continued walking without another word, it was way too early for him to be pissed at people would were all bark and no bite. Szayel was silent as well but multiple images of was to kill/ disfigure/maim the blond arrancar flashed through his genius mind at a million miles a minute. Gritting his teeth the pink haired arrancar sighed and counted backwards from ten to try and calm himself. It wasn't worth it, fighting with the blond imbecile would only lower the scientist down to his level.

** 0**

Orihime Inoue was bored…

Ridiculous bored, bored to the point of wanting to scream and tear your hair out. Well, maybe not quite that bored, but still very close. The orange haired healer had been laying on the small white couch in her cell since she had woken up this morning. Well, at least she thought it was morning. The eternal moon hanging over Las Noches made it hard to tell what time it was. All of her days seemed to run together at this point; she couldn't even begin to think about how long it had been since she had been taken from her friends and locked away. Her mind slowly wandered to those friends that she had been taken from. Did they miss her as much as she missed them? Were they coming to save her? Had they even realized that she had disappeared?

The orange haired female shook these thoughts away, she couldn't think about her friends to long or she would start to cry. She did miss them all a lot but she couldn't be depressed about it. She had to stay strong; for them, and for herself. Although, staying strong both mentally and physically was way easier said than done. Although she was feed three times a day the food itself was… well; she wasn't even sure how to describe it. At least it was actually edible, albeit rather bland to the taste. But staying mentally strong was proving to be a much harder task. Mainly because there was nothing to do in the small room she has living in; _nothing…at…__**all.**_

The second meal of the day had arrived about thirty minutes earlier so Orihime at least knew that it around noon in Las Noches. Witch meant that it would be another seven hours or so before she would be able to fall asleep. The mere thought of having to stare at the white ceiling of the small room for another seven hours made the orange haired girl shutter. She stretched slightly, allowing her arms to dangle over the arm rest of the couch above her head. She hoped that Ulquiorra would come by sometime soon. Even though the Espada was about as conversational as a wooden board at least his presence offered some distraction from the boredom that riddled her mind.

A loud bang was heard from the other side of the door to Orihime's room. The sudden noise shattered the silence and caused the poor girl to jump to her feet. She clamped her hands together and furrowed her brows in shock and confusion. The cuatro Espada always knocked before he came into her room but never like this. This sounded like someone had slammed their fist into the door. She wasn't sure what was going on but three more loud knocks were heard at the door.

"C-come in…" Orihime stammered out in the direction of the door.

The knob turned slowly as Orihime backed closer to the far wall; she got into a slightly defensive stance. She wasn't sure what she could do if the person at the door meant to harm her but she sure as heck wasn't going down without a fight. The door swung up fully, reviling the person how had been banging on the wood only seconds before. Orihime took in the man's appearance; tall with spiky blond hair, misty blue eyes, and orange colored marks over his eyes. He wasn't the cuatro Espada that much was certain. So… who was he then? The blond man stepped into the room, his hands deep in the pockets of his white arrancar jacket. He locked eyes with her; although the stare only lasted a few seconds but to Orihime it felt like ages. The blond arrancar stepped a bit closer; although he was still a good distance away Orihime was having a minor panic attack over what he was going to do to her. It took all of her will power not to make a run for it. The blond arrancar didn't remove his hands from his pockets as he bent forward and lowered his head. It took a moment for Orihime to realize that the man was bowing in respect. The blond stood up fully before speaking.

"Hello… Miss Orihime. I'm sorry to bother you but I am here to inform you that Ulquiorra Cifer well no longer be your caretaker. Aizen has given me this task instead; I will be looking after you from now on."

"O-oh! I-I see." Orihime squawked out after hearing the news.

The girl calmed down a bit after hearing this; that meant that he wasn't going to hurt her. It was rather odd to hear this new arrancar speak in such a way. Although she didn't know anything about the blond she felt as though he didn't normally speak in such a formal way. She let her body relax as she moved closer to the blond man. She was still wary of him but she also felt like he was safe be around.

"U-um…I didn't c-catch your name."

"Akutare… Arrancar number nineteen, at your service." The blond said as he bowed his head again.

Orihime couldn't help but smile a little at the blond arrancar she had just met. She may not have known him very well but he seemed oddly nice compared to the other arrancar she had come across in Las Noches. The door to the room closed forcefully, breaking the two from their conversation. That was when Orihime noticed that there was someone else with the blond arrancar. This second person had closed the door and moved to stand next to the blond arrancar. This man was about as tall as the blond and wore white framed glasses. His eyes were a deep golden color and his hair was…pink? Orihime blinked a few times as she stared at the pink haired man; after being surrounded by white for so long that the splash of color was like a shock to her optic nerves. The pink haired arrancar looked rather annoyed, Orihime was very cautious of him.

"Dude… introduce yourself." Akutare muttered under his breath.

Szayel sent the blond a glare; he wanted to be back in the comfort of his lab working on his experiments, not playing caretaker. Orihime didn't hear Akutare speak nor did she catch the glare that Szayel had sent the lower ranked arrancar. She stood there in silence just watching the two men. Szayel begrudging decided to at least tell the human his name. Not to be outdone by the blond hellion of course the Espada bowed his head to Orihime as well. No way in hell he was going to be shown up by such a manner-less pig as the nineteenth.

"Good afternoon, Miss Orihime. I am Szayel Aporro Grantz… the octava Espada. Lord Aizen has asked that I also asset in looking after you while you are a guest here in Las Noches."

'This guy is an Espada? He isn't as high ranked as Ulquiorra, but still… they have such strong people watching me.' Orihime thought to herself.

"What happened to Ulquiorra? Why isn't he going to be my guard anymore?"

Orihime couldn't really say that she would prefer the stoic Espada as her guard, but at least she knew a little bit about him. These two she knew nothing about.

"Aizen decided that he needed as many high ranking arrancar available to fight as possible. He needed the cuatro for more important things than guard duty." Szayel told her evenly.

"Oh, I see. Then, why are you guarding me? You're an Espada as well."

"HAHA…Please; Szayel's a scientist, not a fighter. He would much rather stay locked away in his chambers playing with his experiments than anything else." Akutare said, smiling really big and showing all his teeth.

Szayel glared daggers at the blond arrancar next to him; the pink hair Espada was really going to end up killing this fool if he didn't learn how to shut up.

"You're a scientist?" Orihime questioned with curiously.

"Yes…I am." Szayel answered quickly.

"What do you research?"

"Well… there are a lot of things I do other than just research my dear. I am the greatest scientist in Hueco Mundo after all." Szayel boasted with pride in his voice.

'You're the _only _scientist in Hueco Mundo you stupid prick…' Akutare thought to himself as Szayel began to babble about everything he did as the scientist of Las Noches.

'This could go on for a while…' The blond thought as he sat down of the carpeted floor; if he was going to be here for a while then he might as well make himself comfortable.

** 0**

Orihime smiled happily for the first time since she had been in Las Noches. She, Akutare, and Szayel had been talking for almost three hours now. Szayel had been going on and on about all research and experimenting that he did while Akutare cracked bad jokes and poked fun at the pink haired researcher every chance he got. Akutare was more willing to talk to her on a personal level. He would ask her questions about what she liked to do, her favorite color, favorite foods, hobbies; normal things that humans asked their friends about. He seemed almost out of place compared to other arrancar who acted boastful, cold, and bloodthirsty. It was a nice change and Orihime took his random questions with joy; she even asked him some of the same questions and he answered them all eagerly.

The princess sat on the white couch smiling sweetly, the blond hellion lay stretched out of the floor like a beached whale, and the pink haired scientist stood leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. The princess and her new guards.

** 0**

"That went rather well…"Akutare stated as he and Szayel left Orihime's room.

"If you say so…" Szayel grumbled in response.

"Don't be a dick… you can't say that it wasn't at least slightly entertaining to talk with her."

"I have more important things to do than babysit a useless human!"

"No need to yell; I'm standing right next to you after all."

"Go to hell..."

"Fine… be an asshole."

The two arrancar came to a fork in the hallway; this was where they parted ways. One would go right, the other would head left. They wouldn't see each other again, until the next day when they went to perform their duty as the guards of Orihime Inoue.

"I don't see why you're making such as big fuss over all of this."

""And why is that?"

"Well… given your love of research and observation I thought that having the chance to observe a human in such detail would thrill you to death."

The Espada stopped dead in his tracks; he glared at the blond arrancar who was looking back at him with a rather bored expression on his face. Szayel was really close to knocking the blonde's head off but he restrained himself, knowing that the other man could overpower him without much effort. Akutare headed down the right hallway without another word, Szayel glared at the man's retreating back before heading down the left hallway. The Espada had been fid up enough for one day and he wasn't going to do anything else aside from working on his experiments to try and calm himself down. But as the Espada walked further into the dark basement of Las Noches his mind returned to Akutare's words. A dark grin crawled across the scientist's face. Akutare was right, he was a curious man; and he did like the idea of getting to observe a human up close.

And being her guard gave him the perfect excuse to watch her.

**Chapter End:**

**Done! Hope u like it!**

**Yes, I know… this chapter isn't as long as most and nothing really happens in it. Don't worry though; the next chapter has a big fight in it!**

**Between who?! **

**Akutare and Nnoitra-Sama of course!**

**Nnoitra: ****Hell yeah bitches! I'm gonna kick that little fuckers ass!**

**Akutare: ****No you're not cock sucker…**

**Nnoitra: ****And why the hell is that!?**

**Akutare: ****'Cause bitch… Writer-Sama already said that it was I who would be kicking your lanky ass.**

**Nnoitra: ****WHAT THE FUCK!?**

**Me: (****Mischievous Cackle) **

**Nnoitra: ****You mother fuckin' bitch!**

**Me: ****Stay tuned for the next chapter peoples! **

**Review Kindly Please. **

_**PEACE OUT!**_

_**Virgo-24**_


End file.
